The delivery of media over networks such as the Internet can be accomplished in many ways, including progressive downloading or streaming. Streaming is often preferred to progressive downloading because it offers additional features such as content protection and the ability to seek to undownloaded parts of a video file. The process of preparing a video file for streaming typically involves “chunking” the file, or dividing video files up into smaller segments for delivery. Information including where chunks may be accessed can be stored in an index file, or manifest. This index file can be delivered to a client, such as a media player application, for use in streaming.
The processes of chunking and indexing video files for streaming can present challenges to a media file delivery service provider or content provider in the distribution of the video files. For example, a significant amount of preprocessing is required to prepare media for streaming. These time requirements can limit forensically watermarking video files with information regarding the identity of the entity requesting the video.